Main topic you say? Well AVR has lots of shiny new angels and a fair number of new demons, but what about the old guard? Both have been around since the first printing of Magic, but what are we dealing with here? What have these two types looked like throughout the history of the game? We’ll discuss some of the ancient creatures of each type and throw out plenty of personal experiences with them too of course.

Two things should become pretty obvious from this discussion. First, Brian doesn’t actually know the names of any angels or demons in the game of Magic. And second, demons DO NOT get along with Mike, so much so that we named the episode after this phenomenon. You’re gonna love these horrible, horrible demonic bad beats stories all the more when you realize that these ALL come from the demons that Mike is playing WITH, not against!

Avacyn Restored Event Decks: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/967

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My favorite thing about Magic: the Gathering is the strategic depth, and the Commander format permits strategies that are not viable anywhere else to have their five minutes of fame. Mono-red, however, has a reputation of being linear and simple; this just isn’t so. Despite not having certain valued abilities ready at their disposal, mono-red decks are still capable of operating in varied and complex ways. This is a point Mike has alluded to a couple times in talking about his Big Red Standard deck, and here I will show it by comparing his mono-red Commander deck to mine.

A couple years ago I built a mono-red Commander deck. The general was Rakka Mar. I built it badly and it failed miserably. But when Mike built Fumiko, I was curious to see if he could get it to work. After The Dorks took a crack at fixing it and Mike put the deck up for listeners’ suggestions, I decided I would take a second crack at a mono-red Commander deck.

Here’s my deck list.  You can find Mike’s Fumiko deck in its current form right here. (Chewie note: Mike’s deck was featured on DailyMTG’s Daily Deck List yesterday!)

Commander
Urabrask the Hidden

Creature (21)
Bogardan Hellkite
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Sundering Titan
Duplicant
Solemn Simulacrum
Chartooth Cougar
Flametongue Kavu
Goblin Welder
Hateflayer
Thunderblust
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Artisan of Kozilek
Kargan Dragonlord
It That Betrays
Inferno Titan
Wurmcoil Engine
Steel Hellkite
Magmatic Force
Balefire Dragon
Moonveil Dragon

Artifacts (28)
Coalition Relic
Gauntlet of Power
Journeyer’s Kite
Sensei’s Divining Top
Wayfarer’s Bauble
Darksteel Ingot
Gilded Lotus
Mind’s Eye
Sun Droplet
Tower of Fortunes
Heart of Ramos
Thran Dynamo
Voltaic Key
Erratic Portal
Mind Stone
Fire Diamond
Sol Ring
Armillary Sphere
Expedition Map
Seer’s Sundial
Angelheart Vial
Dreamstone Hedron
Lux Cannon
Spine of Ish Sah
Ichor Wellspring
Caged Sun
Mycosynth Wellspring
Grafdigger’s Cage

Enchantment (6)
War’s Toll
Gratuitous Violence
Blood Moon
Rage Reflection
Stranglehold
Warstorm Surge

Instants & Sorceries (4)
Savage Beating
Shattering Pulse
Comet Storm
Banefire

Planeswalker (2)
Koth of the Hammer
Karn Liberated

Land (38)
37x Mountain
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

I went with Urabrask the Hidden in order to capitalize on any big dudes or utility tappers I put in the deck. The goal of the deck is to clear the way for my attackers. It aims to do this by means of spot removal, fliers, Urabrask’s second ability, and by making blocking as unprofitable as possible. At the same time it tries to keep ahead of its opponents through artifact acceleration/consistently hitting land drops and artifact based card draw.

On Fumiko, Mike has said:
“The point of having Fumiko the Lowblood as a commander, first and foremost, is to mess with people.  Supported by other cards, she forces other players to interact and send their creatures around to throw elbows, especially when they don’t want to.  While those creatures are busy with all that, I have plenty of big scary guys for them to run into, and then the way is clear for said scary guys to attack.  To keep me in the game and to let me be able to actually play the big stuff, I pack a fair amount of removal and artifact mana, as well as a higher-than-average land count.”

Looking at Mike’s list we see similar strategic goals and routes to achieve them: repeated swings in the red zone (as opposed, for example, to my Oath of Druids deck which swings once with Blightsteel Colossus), a need to clear blockers, making combat uncomfortable for your opponents, and a reliance on artifact acceleration.

Yet his list and mine share only 31 cards (16 of which are lands).

5 Artifacts:
Journeyer’s Kite
Heart of Ramos
Expedition Map
Sol Ring
Thran Dynamo

16 Lands:
15x Mountains
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

1 Enchantment:
Stranglehold

9 Creatures:
Duplicant
Hateflayer
Steel Hellkite
Wurmcoil Engine
Inferno Titan
Balefire Dragon
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Moonveil Dragon
Urabrask the Hidden

What do these cards share, and why are they the only cards shared between two mono-red decks with similar strategic goals?

Mono-red decks are naturally going to have a higher density of mountains and Valakut is good even in red two-color Commander decks. The artifacts are efficient mana accelerants/fixers (I have run pieces of Ramos in three color decks). Stranglehold is a hate card that red needs to keep the game on an even keel against blue and black as well as decks with greedy mana bases reliant on fetch lands. The creatures show the strategic overlap between these decks, but conceal the accompanying strategies. That is, these creatures tell you virtually nothing about the rest of the deck.

Despite having very similar strategic goals, the only thing these decks share are “staple” mono-red cards. So what are these decks doing differently? What makes them unique? What makes them a Daniel Deck(TM) and a Mike Deck(TM) and not The Mono-Red Deck? Let’s look at the different takes on the primary roles of a deck: aggro, control, and combo and how these decks differ in these respects.

AGGRO
Mike’s deck runs a number of Battle Cry effects (such as Instigator Gang, Contested War Zone, Orcish Oriflamme, and Hero of Oxid Ridge) in order to gain incremental combat advantage. Combined with a higher density and lower curve for his creatures, Mike is able to assemble meaningful defenses while still swinging with relevant creatures.

My deck is less aggro. With a relatively low creature count and a higher cost curve for them, my deck relies on ramping for a longer period of time, but having heavier-thud creatures. Combined with Urabrask, I can recoup comparative early game losses with a higher impact mid-/late-game. Savage Beating, Warstorm Surge, Rage Reflection, and Gratuitous Violence further allow me to significantly increase my late-game damage output.

CONTROL
The removal available to Mike is largely combat-based (and therefore creature-based) backed up with several burn and creature destruction spells. Since often the way to use non-creature spells effectively relies on having strong defensive creatures, Fumiko, Avatar of Slaughter, Grand Melee, and his removal suite can force his opponents to expend their meaningful defenses and eliminate key utility creatures thereby reducing (though not eliminating) the need to worry about non-creatures. Mike is also running a fair amount of land destruction effects to deal with, if nothing else, opposing Mazes of Ith.

Due to the slower operation of my deck, I have to spend more time worrying about non-creature threats. For that reason I run multi-purpose removal like Karn Liberated, Spine of Ish Sah, Lux Cannon, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Backing up those cards is a land disruption package including Blood Moon, Sundering Titan, and War’s Toll. As a meta-game choice I run Grafdigger’s Cage to stop reanimation strategies and late game Yawgmoth’s Will. The primary goal of my control suite is to force my opponents to “play fair” because the threats I can put out can match or beat theirs when on an even keel.

COMBO
By pushing the aggro and control aspects of his deck space, Mike’s deck leaves less room for combination plays. However, Kiki-Jiki, Battle Rampart, and Zirilan of the Claw allow for some serious value combinations. The use of fetch lands to trigger Valakut at instant speed also gains incremental advantage and can stave off utility creatures or finish off a big creature post-combat.

Combination plays are a specialty of mine, but mono-red requires a closer eye on cards that are only in the deck to combo. My general rule in Commander is to keep a combo-card (a card that does nothing but work with other cards) only if there are at least 10 cards that work with it but do not require the combo-card to be good. I tend to pack as many minor combination plays in a Commander deck as possible so as to randomly generate an effect larger than the individually good cards could provide on their own thereby gaining virtual card advantage. Some of the interactions in this deck are:

Kiki-Jiki+dudes, Voltaic Key+tapping artifacts, Goblin Welder+Ichor and Mycosynth Wellsping, Erratic Portal+enter the battlefield abilities. I count Blood Moon+Sundering Titan as a combination play, but both cards are definitely worth playing without the other. The pipe dream combination play is Voltaic Key+Erratic Portal+Kiki-Jiki+Gratuitous Violence+Warstorm Surge+Bogardan Hellkite on the board with 13 Mana (6 of it red) available. (Notice that these cards are not dead outside of this ridiculous combo; there are several two card combinations in that sequence that provide great value and interact with the rest of the deck.)

There are two more aspects that deserve comparison: mana acceleration and the choice of finishers. These comparisons highlight the trade off between speed (the rate at which a deck gets to its end game) and survivability (its ability to live that long).  Here’s a table for easy comparison of mana acceleration:

Despite what I may have said earlier on the subject of mana rocks, when push came to shove I included a total of 18 accelerants and land searchers, which is twice the amount Mike has included in Fumiko. Regardless of what tappedout.net says about the average converted mana costs of these decks, the cost of cards that actually impact the board in Urabrask are higher than in Fumiko and the amount of mana acceleration reflects this.

For finishers, Mike has gone for… DRAGONS. Only eight of them, which is two short of my rubric for a combination card (Zirilan of the Claw), but they’re dragons. Akroma, Angel of Fury and Avatar of Slaughter top off the curve at eight mana. Combined with any number of Battle Cry effects and their own fire breathing, these finishers can pump out considerable damage. With the ramp available to him, I would expect these to come down a turn ahead of schedule without losing tempo.

I on the other hand have sacrificed tempo and defenses for bigger dudes and combination plays. Between the Eldrazi titans, Inferno Titan/Bogardan Hellkite, and Urabrask’s second ability I can potentially set my opponents back enough to not get completely overrun. Exemplifying the early/late game trade off is the fact that, while I can expect a card like Kozilek to come down two turns earlier, spending a couple more turns ramping than other decks may mean Urabrask or other relevant early game threats come down a turn or two later; a drawback which, if exploited correctly, can cost me considerable tempo.

Mike has built a sturdier mono-red deck than me. More of his value is found in individual cards than in their combination. He regains lost value by playing more cards. My deck is more fragile. Removing a piece of a combination play may mean that one or more of the other cards are useless for several turns, and it may be some time before I draw something to reactivate them.

How much are you willing to give up to win? How will you protect yourself? How will you hinder your opponents? These are the questions that every deck has to answer, and the answers are different for different people and different decks. Here we have two very different takes on mono-red in Commander. Each deck pushes on certain aspects, and pulls back on others. Each deck shows the value judgments of their makers in different ways and shows what strategies they consider “worth it” and “not worth it”. And there is still so much deck design space in mono-red. Won’t you give it a shot?

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how these decks compare to each other. Please feel free to leave any feedback in the comments, send me an email at beach7125@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @beach7125.

__________

Daniel Beach is a level 1 judge from Minneapolis. He has played Magic since Time Spiral block. He most often plays multiplayer Commander with occasional ventures into Vintage. His favorite zone is The Stack.

Of course, before we get to the Sealed events, we have a few things to discuss.  In a quick message on DailyMTG by Helene Bergeot (and aren’t they all quick?), it was revealed that Guillaume Matignon’s suspension was cut in half.  If you’ll recall, he was one of the Guillaumes responsible for GuillaumeGate.  Guillaume Guillaume.  Okay, I think that’s out of my system now.  But he was one of the guys behind the New Phyrexia godbook leak.  Or so we thought…*dramatic pause*

Also, there was plenty of talk about the Helvault promotion on the whole.  We’ll go over the ups, the downs, why it was or wasn’t crazy good, and bat around a few ideas for improving future events and stuff.  Let us know what you think!

GRISELBRAND!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones

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General
Fumiko the Lowblood

Land
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Bloodstained Mire
Scalding Tarn
Arid Mesa
Naya Panorama
Grixis Panorama
Jund Panorama
Rocky Tar Pit
Mountain Valley
Terramorphic Expanse
Evolving Wilds
Thawing Glaciers
Quicksand
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
Contested War Zone
Sandstone Needle
Temple of the False God
Shivan Gorge
Dust Bowl
Tectonic Edge
Wasteland
Strip Mine
Maze of Ith
15 Mountains

Artifacts
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Grim Monolith
Heart of Ramos
Foriysian Totem
Worn Powerstone
Palladium Myr
Thran Dynamo
Lightning Greaves
Sword of Vengeance
Loxodon Warhammer
Strata Scythe
Thunderstaff
Expedition Map
Journeyer’s Kite
Serum Tank
Phyrexian Grimoire
Jayemdae Tome
Predator, Flagship
Oblivion Stone
Nevinyrral’s Disk
Phyrexian Processor

Creatures
Hoarding Dragon
Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Duplicant
Steel Hellkite
Balefire Dragon
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Avatar of Slaughter
Slith Firewalker
Tuktuk the Explorer
Battle Rampart
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
Hero of Oxid Ridge
Eron the Relentless
Kuldotha Phoenix
Darksteel Sentinel
Wurmcoil Engine
Thopter Assembly
Inferno Titan
Conquering Manticore
Two-Headed Dragon
Homura, Human Ascendant
Mordant Dragon
Darksteel Gargoyle
Hateflayer
Hellkite Igniter
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Pathrazer of Ulamog

Other Spells
Reckless Charge
Aftershock
Fissure
Lava Flow
Stone Idol Trap
Comet Storm
Starstorm
Slice and Dice
Disaster Radius
Stranglehold
Grand Melee
Insurrection

Avacyn Restored Card Image Gallery

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Blue (Da Ba Dee) by Eiffel 65

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But we had so much fun with Homelands that we decided to give it another go.  This time, Mike brought over his box of Mirage!  Ah yes, Mirage.  For the record, I hate hate HATE Femeref Healers.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Mirage brought us bizarre new things like phasing and flanking, but let’s not hate on it too much for those.  Flanking was actually pretty cool.  Mirage also gave us the very first appearance of charms!  You know, cheap modal spells that have 3 useful-but-not-really-worth-a-card abilities on them.  Charms have popped up 6 times now, but Mirage was the first.

One last little factoid: Mirage was the first set that artist John Avon worked on.  Pretty cool huh?  He did the Mountains and one of the old-school fetchlands, Grasslands.  I really love the Mountains from Mirage, especially the purple one.  What do you think?

But of course, that’s not why you’re here, is it?  You actually want to check out the draft, right?  Well then, a word of warning as always: Mike and I are not at our usual PG-rating in these videos.  Don’t be too terribly shocked when you hear these words coming out of our mouths!  But do pay attention, as Mike drops some pretty serious history at multiple points.  And don’t worry if you don’t know how to do a Winchester Draft, we sort of explained it.  Besides, you’ll be able to figure it out just from watching us do one.

So that was what we ended up with.  If I remember correctly, both of our decks basically built themselves.  Actually, I think I had some trouble making cuts!  I ended up in blue and black (imagine that) and Mike was playing white and green, with a red splash for a PAIR of Kaervek’s Torches and a couple other things that weren’t game-ending burn spells.

So here are the games we played with these decks.  It was pretty nuts.  There were severe blowouts from such stupid cards as Healing Salve and Dark Ritual, and I mean absolute BLOWOUTS.  It was a bizarre series of games, but it was a pretty amazing amount of fun.  Keep an eye out at the end for a quick look at how I store my Magic cards (someone asked at some point) and be sure to stick around until Mike signs off.  It’s well worth it.

Man that was awesome.  Of course, I might be a bit partial to Mirage.  After all, two of my favorite Commanders first appeared here – Kaervek and Spirit of the Night!  Those links will take you to my CMDR Decks videos for those two decks, but you’ve already watched them, right?  If not, I highly recommend them for purely egotistical reasons!

Thanks a lot for watching!  We hope you enjoyed it almost as much as we did.  Any and all feedback is appreciated, of course.  And yes, I know I need a better camera, but that’s all I’ve got at the moment so just deal with it :p  What else you guys got for us?

But when Brian unexpectedly had to leave just before we got to the inverted Zombie Apocalypse angel, something else happened.  After finishing up the previewed cards, we had a bit of a poetry reading.  It was a poem by our own KhaosKontrol over on the Mana Pool/Cardshark forums, and it was so awesome that we just had to read it on air.  Hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

Sprinkled throughout the rest of the show, Dirk has a strangest voice problem ever, Mike and Chewie recap some streaming shenanigans, Chewie recounts some powerful parental advice, and there are many dick jokes left unsaid.  Thanks for listening!

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – All I Need is a Miracle by Mike and the Mechanics
Background Music – Mantis’ Hymn by Konami Computer Entertainment Sound Team Japan

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After that Chewie gives a quick rundown of all the podcast whoring he’s been doing lately.  By lately we mean in the last couple months, because some of these took a while to show up.  He’s been on Off-Color Cast, Kitchen Finks, Horde of Notions, and was one of the guys on the new Five Minutes of Magic cast that is, in fact, only five minutes long. He also had another video for CMDR Decks, his Spirit of the Night deck, which you can find right here:
http://themanapool.com/the-deck-box/cmdrspiritofthenight/

By now everyone’s heard the news that came out of PAX East, and if not you’ll hear it for the first time right here!  There’s the Return to Ravnica, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, and Nicol Bolas showing up in the M13 Core Set.  Holy crap that’s a lotta news keeping us from the spoilers!  There’s one last thing before the spoilers though, as Chewie gets all mushy and heartfelt for once in his miserable life to extend a special thanks to some listeners for their generosity.

Oh, and then there’s a whole MESS of Avacyn Restored previews.  We’ve got angels, demons, devils, BOOM, pants-crapping, stunned silence, angry eyebrows, miracles, and Elmer Fudd.  It’s gonna be great.

Follow Bill/Squee on Twitter @SqueeGoblnNabob

Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals by Raymond Scott

For a list of the rest of the music, check out the this episode’s forum post.

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Squee lucks out and manages to draft two of his favorite cards in the block for a return to the fabled zombie mill archetype. Not to go unchallenged, Squee once again faces off against a rival mill machine in the very first round. Squee employs mythic monsters, dabbles in undead alchemy, and toys with the Brink in an attempt to assemble a terrifying force of zombie horror. One way or another, Squee is here it pick at your brain and embrace the strange interactions available within the world of Innistrad.

We begin this episode with a discussion of Avacyn, the first reveal from Avacyn Restored, and boy is she something!  From there we move into the double-faced tokens that were given away at FNM (sorry about the delay) and the fansite toolkit available from Wizards, featuring some nifty images for you to use whether you have a site or not.  Also, a big shoutout to Jeffrey Lombaro, who is @MuttZippy on Twitter, for buying us all lunch the last time we all got together to play Magic!  He’s a sweetheart of a guy and he’s doing giveaways and stuff on Twitter, so go follow him!

And since it’s Springtime, Brian thought we should talk about those things that make people absolutely miserable and unable to see or breathe, plants!  Yes there are plenty of plants in Magic, we by the end of the show we’ll have talked about almost all of them!  We even asked Twitter for some favorite plant creatures, which we promptly made fun of.  Okay, not all of them, just the ones that deserved it.  But if you’ve ever wanted to know about the Plant creature type in Magic, look no further!  Be sure to pack Benadryl and some tissues!

Decked Builder Giveaway!
Cardshark prices are now available on Decked Builder, an iPhone/iPad app that covers all your Magic deckbuilding needs!  If you want a chance to win a free redemption code, just go to this episode’s post on TheManaPool.com and comment intelligently (also let us know that you want the app).  Keep an eye on our Twitter, Facebook, and Forums for more chances to win!

Avacyn Revealed:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/525246_10151450289785307_201120755306_23094082_859257884_n.jpg

Double-faced Tokens:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/938

Fansite Toolkits:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Downloads.aspx

Ralph McQuarrie’s Website: http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/

Orbitars: A Kid Icarus Uprising Competitive Community
Blog: http://orbitars.wordpress.com/
Forums: http://orbitars.forumotion.com/
Twitter: @orbitars

Intro by Tosus!
Intro & Outro Music – Diamond by Swift – http://www.swift-band.com
Break Music – Requiem of the Gods from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by Michiru Yamane

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